Looking Forward

It's funny how different times of the year are slow, busy, and in between. Especially in the life of a college student, living in the world of semesters and breaks, both summer and winter. We easily transition from the slow, syrupy pace of summer to a full-throttle fall. Then we take breaks in the form of thanksgiving and christmas and new years, finding time in all the mess to rest and go back to a slower pace of life. And then its back for a spring that promises more time with friends, more time with the books, and more time wondering what to do with the upcoming summer.

In all of the gearing up and slowing down we realize that these college years are quite possibly some of the best years of our lives. Right now I'm finding myself in the yawning quiet of winter break. Christmas and New Years are memories now. Gone is the hurry and hustle of the holiday season. Now its back to normal for everyone. Except for the college kid on winter break, not taking a fast paced january class. And that would be me.

Most of my days during this protracted winter season are quiet. They slowly pile up and the weeks come and go with the speed of ripples going from one side of a pond to the other. It's the time of year when it's easier to sit down and talk to someone, avoiding the biting winds and bleak, grey skies outside. I'm finding myself doing a whole lot of nothing, which, in the grand scheme of things, can actually be quite the balm for a soul wound so tight from months of busyness.

Seasons come and seasons go, and before long, the spring semester will be announcing its arrival with loads of school, friends, and general college things. Before long, I wont be able to spend all evening watching college football and/or college basketball. Before long, instead of wondering what to do with a few hours I'll be wondering how to cram as much into those same few hours. It's almost as if the seasons of life for a college student are like a playground seesaw, going from one side to the other.

It's not the circumstances, or the seasons, though, that I'm really concerned with. College is awesome, some of the best years ever, but from what I hear, it doesn't last, and there are new seasons on the horizon. So I guess what I'm saying in all of this is that I'm learning what it means to be balanced. To have centrality throughout the various speeds of life, to have a stronger, deeper foundation, if you will. Life's not meant to be lived pedal-to-the-metal, but its also not meant to be lived in a perpetual state of yawning, either. There are amazing things to be done in this world, especially with the blessings that have been poured out to us. There are journeys to be taken, answers to be found, and lives to be impacted. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, running, as it were, before I really have the ball. Somewhere in between the hectic life that the world demands from us and the sedate, quiet life of the person who's been deflated of their passion for life is the realm of balance which our souls beg us to find.

And this whole idea of balance seems to me to be one of the most important discoveries for college students like me.